JURY SAYS PAIR AIDED THE 'GRANDMA MAFIA'

A federal drug agent and a businessman have been indicted on charges that they gave law enforcement secrets to a convicted head of the "Grandma Mafia" drug smuggling ring.

Steve Gibbs, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, and Brooks Muse, who is suspected of being a go-between, each were charged wih conspiracy to defraud the government and the unlawful conveyance of confidential DEA information, assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Schnapp said Saturday.

If convicted, Gibbs, a 13-year DEA veteran, and Muse face a maximum of 15 years in jail and a $20,000 fine.

The conspiracy began June 17, 1982, when Muse, an employee at HHH Construction in Miami, met Barbara Mouzin at a restaurant and offered to get her law enforcement information, the indictment said.

Mouzin, 47, was convicted in May 1984 in Los Angeles of heading a major drug trafficking and money laundering ring called the "Grandma Mafia" because some of its members, including Dorothy Hackett, 46, of Hialeah, were grandmothers.

The indictment Friday by a federal grand jury in Miami said the day after the meeting between Mouzin and Muse, Gibbs used a DEA computer to get information about the ring.

On June 22, the day after Gibbs telephoned a DEA agent in Los Angeles to ask about the Mouzin case, Muse met with Mouzin in Florida and passed along information that included a computer report about an undercover investigation into the "Grandma Mafia," the indictment said.

Gibbs, who had been transferred to limited duty, surrendered to authorities Friday and was released on $60,000 bail.

Muse was still at large, said Schnapp.

Mouzin is serving a 25-year sentence. She also was fined $1 million and ordered to forfeit any interest held in a Miami clothing store that allegedly operated as the front for the drug business.